Recently, I received an email stating that I should eradicate John Coltrane from my playlist. I believe the emailer’s words were something to the effect of, “Coltrane DOES NOT ease my troubled mind. Stick with the likes of Webster.” Webster being, of course, Ben Webster.

While I respect the opinions of my listeners and can even understand where this particular individual is coming from — I mean, Coltrane’s versions of the ballads Body & Soul and I Want to Talk About You are not exactly slow-paced lullabies — I can’t imagine playing classic jazz without Coltrane. Can you? In my opinion, jazz without Coltrane would be like the Nazis without Himmler. That’s a bad analogy, I know, but it makes sense, doesn’t it? Himmler was integral to the whole movement that was Nazism, was he not? And where would jazz be without Coltrane.

I don’t mean to make light of Nazis and it seems awful to compare the legends of jazz to one of the most destructive machines in the history of man. But I do it tongue in cheek. I also do it because the Nazis hated jazz almost as much as they hated the men and women who created the music. The thing about jazz is that it was totally inclusive. Black, white, Jew, Gentile. None of that crap mattered. All that mattered was what you did when you put your fingers to the keys or sticks to the skins or your lips upon that horn. And yes, jazz was a male dominated artform, but where would it be without Mary Lou Williams or Clora Bryant or the endless list of female vocalists out there? Totally inclusive.

I think that is why the Nazis hated the music so much. You had Black musicians, Jewish producers, vice-versa, intermingling, co-existing. What you had was integration in the studios, on the dance floors and more. It was the more that the Nazis detested. It was the more that got the Savoy closed in Harlem. The Nazis weren’t the only ones who hated harmony that went beyond the music.

Anyway, I went the long way around to basically say that I can not stop playing Coltrane on the station. Perhaps there is a tune or two that I could leave off the playlist, as they may be a little too incendiary for the ballad format. But it would be a mortal sin to exclude Coltrane altogether.

Sehnen sich Phasencoltrane!

I love Babel Fish.